Tony Smith

Tony Smith (born circa 1944), the trailblazing British naval architect and multihull innovator, transformed the American sailing landscape after emigrating from England in 1976 with his wife Sue, founding Performance Cruising Inc. in Annapolis, Maryland, to pioneer affordable, trailerable catamarans amid the era's skepticism toward "fringe" designs. His odyssey began in the 1960s as a teenage enthusiast, constructing a 24-foot Arthur Piver trimaran in 1964 and solo-sailing it to France, followed by crewing in the inaugural Round Britain Race and building his own 25-foot foam-cored tri in his parents' garage; by 1969, he launched the revolutionary Telstar 26, the first production folding trimaran with integrated foam-sandwich fiberglass, producing over a dozen before a 1981 factory fire incinerated the molds. Undeterred, Smith repurposed imported Aristocat 30 hull lines to birth the Phoenix—the inaugural Gemini 31 (3000) in 1981—sparking a dynasty of compact, marina-friendly cats with narrow 14-foot beams, shallow drafts, and efficient outboard propulsion, evolving through the 3200, 105M (1996, over 1,200 built), 105MC, and Legacy 35, emphasizing accessibility for novice cruisers while delivering coastal stability and 6-7 knot motoring. A relentless tinkerer, he integrated vinylester resins to combat blistering, vacuum infusion for weight savings (up to 800 pounds off later models), and lifting rudders for versatility, amassing over 1,200 Geminis and 80+ revived Telstar 28s by 2009, when economic woes prompted retirement at 65; his legacy persists via daughter Laura's stewardship, partnerships with Hunter Marine (2010-2012) and Catalina Yachts (2014 onward), and a 2015 Alaskan odyssey trailering a Telstar 7,000 miles at age 71, embodying the resilient spirit of multihull mastery.